Award Winners for the Ghent Viewpoint Documentary Film Festival 2025 announced!

The 2025 edition of the Ghent Viewpoint Documentary Film Festival came to an end after a week of screening documentary film gems coming from Belgium and all around the world. As is tradition, the festival took place at Ghent's beloved independent cinema Studio Skoop, where guests could also enjoy a free drink at the cosy Skoop Café.

“I can proudly say the 2025 edition was once again a blast—great films, a fantastic audience, and that perfect mix of crowd-pleasers and deeply resonant arthouse cinema. The closing night was unforgettable, with Becoming Madonna drawing a massive turnout, including fans fully dressed in tribute. On the more introspective side, films like Saturn and Marching in the Dark left the audience in stunned silence, while Zaad offered a deeply intimate and raw portrait of a father through the lens of his son. Pure life—so beautiful.” says festival director Kris De Meester.

Ghent Viewpoint Documentary Film Festival is pleased to share with you this morning the award winners of  2025:

Best Documentary Feature Film:

Becoming Madonna (United Kingdom) by Michael Odgen

Best Documentary Short

Freshman (Poland) by Michał Edelman, Tomasz Pawlik

Best Experimental Documentary Film:

Object 817 (Belgium) by Olga Lucovnicova

Best Underground Documentary Film:

Methuselah (United States) by Nathan Sellers

Best Cinéma Vérité Film

Tokyo Toy Boy (Belgium) by Esli Balatova

Best Essay Film:

Compromis (Belgium) by Liza De Maeyer

Best Connecting Cultures Film:

Marching in the Dark (Belgium) by Kinshuk Surjan

Best LGBTQ+ Documentary Film:

Adult Child (Norway) by Hugo Francker

Best Hybrid Documentary Film:

It's only/not only a body... or a short film about freedom (Poland) by Michał Hytroś

Best Super Short Documentary Film

São João (United Kingdom) by Will Bentley

Best Belgian Documentary Film:

Zaad (Belgium) by Dries Meddens

Congratulations to all!

The Ghent Viewpoint Documentary Film Festival would like to thank Studio Skoop and Velvet Room for their continued support, and all guests for coming out to enjoy another week full of independent documentary cinema.

Starting today, filmmakers can submit their work to the 2026 edition of the festival: https://filmfreeway.com/viewpointdocfest. See you all next year!